Stick with me in this post I will help you successfully find your next project piece! We will be going over all the great places you can look, find and purchase your next furniture flip! Let’s get shopping!
Successfully find your next project piece…Digital market places
Okay this one is huge… no it is not just Facebook marketplace and Craigslist. There is so much more out there. Places where prices are still cheap and people are just needing to ditch their furniture to make room or move. Are you ready? Here are my key digital places to shop late at night when I can’t sleep. LOL!
CAUTION: Please make sure you are wise and careful when purchasing through these avenues. Meet in public places or take someone with you. Never give out your personal address or phone number and be careful of how they take. Cash is king in this situation, but only take the amount you agreed upon, don’t show up with a wad of $200 to pay out someone for $40 item. Be safe out there my friend.
Facebook Market place – lets face it, it is easy and accessible for those of us already on there. But instead of letting this suck me into the market vortex I choose not to “browse” the marketplace randomly searching. I do find that marketplace lately has been a bit higher on the price point than they usually are. Possibly due to COVID.
Tip #1 – I have set up notifications on my searches that I frequent often… “dressers, local radius 20 miles, price under $100” and when one pops up on the market place it sends me a FB notification. How cool is that?
Tip #2 – When searching for items make sure you change the filter to “used” and “local” so you get items you can pick up locally that are not from retail stores. These help show you what you are looking for.
Tip #3 The next cool technique I do on Facebook marketplace is I will “save” an item I like that is new. About once ever week or two I go through my “Saved Items” list and I delete anything that has sold. Then I look through what is still not selling and I will choose something I love and send the seller an offer lower than their asking price. I try hard not to lowball them so my personal rule it about 1/3 off their asking price if it seems high for a successful flip.
Offer Up App – This app is a digital market place where just like Facebook Market place you can set your location and driving distance, search for specific items, make offers, ask seller questions and save the items for later review like in Tip #3 above.
Craigslist now has an App also – I honestly never use this one anymore. I find it cumbersome to use without an internal messaging system. Having to go also to email.
Nextdoor – This app has a lot of great features other than selling but a digital market place is included. You can search, save and plug in your requested location. Sending a message to the seller is also available.
There are others as well but these are the main ones I have tried. Don’t forget that any of these can be negotiated for a better prices. What is the worst they can say… “no” and you either pay their price or you move on to the next piece… but if they say yes you just got a better deal which matters a lot when flipping for profit.
Successfully find your next project piece…Garage & Yard Sales
Okay the most important thing about garage sales are… COMMUNITY sales! I never just randomly go from one yard sale to another. It is not an efficient way to find project pieces.
Tip #1 Be prepared – Have cash, have a car (that will transport your finds) and coffee you will need your energy! HAHA!
Tip #2 Timing – timing is everything. If you get there first thing in the AM… you will find the best stuff, possibly some good deals. If you get there at the end you can find limited items but great deals so this is totally up to your personal shopping style.
Tip #3 HOAs prefer now to have a sale date specified for their communities. Find out what local community is having a HOA sponsored sale weekend and go to that. It is a much more efficient use of your time on a hit or miss market.
These community sales really have worked out for me when I attend a small towns. I find the best pieces for the lowest prices. It may be a little bit of a drive but usually well worth it.
Successfully find your next project piece… Flea Markets
Flea markets are awesome as long as you can make sure they have a great supply of USED item vendors. I would apply all the tips I gave you about Community Yard & Garage sales to this category as well. The beauty of this is that you can go weekly, or monthly depending on their schedule. Get to know so regular vendors and build a relationship with them. They will get to know you and begin to watch out for items you are looking for. You can also shop the mom and pops cleaning out their attics that just want to purge their items for great prices.
Successfully find your next project piece… Thrift Shops
Thrift stores can be a gold mine when looking for your project pieces. But be careful the “cheap deals” are not always there. Look for their sales color of the week and or offered sales prices. Unfortunately most of these shops are non negotiable pricing unlike all the options up above. However you got to love that most of these places are non profits giving their proceeds back into the community and shopping with them helps their causes. Finds a thrift store you love and frequent it often. Maybe even see if you can volunteer a little bit of your time to help as well.
Well my friend that is all the places I have for you to shop for your next furniture flip. Please let me know if you have any more tips to add to this list of can share with me so I can also discover the benefits of your methods. Until next week. Thank you for joining me and hopefully you have learned how to successfully find your next project piece.